I'm Bob Crawford.

I'm Ben Sawyer.

And this is The Road to Now.

We are so happy today to welcome Max Perry Mueller to the Road to Now to talk about his new book,

Wakara's America.

This is such a complicated individual and a undertold story, an

undertold part of American history. So give us context. You know, introduce us to Wakara

and set the table for us. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks to both of you for having me on today.

It's a real honor.

I'm a big fan of the show.

And so, yeah, Waukehara was the really, you know, I describe him as a founding father of the American West that many people haven't heard of.

And why?

You know, we're, it's because, well, he's a Native

American and there is no kind of Native American. There's no place for a Native American in our

origin stories, especially around Manifest Destiny. One of the biggest claims of Manifest

destiny is that it succeeded. And, um, in removing both Native peoples and Native histories from the land.

And Waukera, his story shows how very influential Waukehara himself was on the creation of what

becomes the American West, but also his descendants with whom I work very closely show that

if you ever go to Indian country,

and that can be on reservations, that can be in cities, that's all of America, really.

One of the most common refrains is we are still here.

So part of the idea of the book is to point out that longevity, that presence, that resilience.

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